The invention relates to patient care equipment and in particular to equipment for the care of incontinent patients. Specifically, it relates to a bath facility that is portable and in which the water flows by gravity, and which is particularly useful for incontinent patients who also are difficult to move because they lack the use of their limbs. The portable gravity bath facilitates care by a single attendant.
The portable gravity bath may be used for patients in an ordinary bed or in a hospital type bed. The portable gravity bath is particularly useful in conjunction with a patient transport and care vehicle disclosed in a copending application, Ser. No. 334,233 filed Dec. 24, 1981.
Incontinence care and the problems associated with the management of incontinence among wheelchair dependent and bedridden patients at home, in hospitals, and in nursing homes have imposed a tremendous burden upon society, namely the providers and recipients of care and their families. This has occurred primarily because of a lack of adequate and appropriate means to deliver care, and from an ever increasing number of the nation's elderly, age 65 years and older, with dementia secondary to Primary Degenerative Dementia.
Since the nineteen sixties, research on the problem of incontinence expanded the use of surgical procedures, indwelling and external cathethers, and for a time bowel and bladder training programs in the treatment and management of urinary and fecal incontinence with varying degrees of success. Development of pneumonics and formation of decubiti necessitating a long hospital stay, due to urinary incontinence have been successfully reduced and curtailed to some extent. Success with fecal incontinence, however, with its devastating impact upon patients, relatives, and providers of care, has been slower and more difficult to achieve, because of ongoing research in this area and inability of providers to meet the demand for care by larger and larger numbers of patients with greater dependencies, more severe physical disabilities, and intellectual impairment due to cerebral infarcts.
The high incidence of multi-infarct dementia in individuals over 65 in our society, coupled with an increase in other forms of dementia, such as alcoholic, post-head trauma, post-anoxia and those undiagnosed and related to specific neurological diseases, such as Huntington's Chorea and Parkinson's disease, has significantly increased multi-infarct dementias among patient populations in the nation's 25,000 nursing homes, and its 7,015 registered and 214 unregistered hospitals.
In the care of the aged, and particularly the care of incontinent aged and the aged who have suffered a stroke or other injury that deprives them of the use of some or all of their limbs, problems arise for both the patient and the attendant. As a matter of fact, such problems also exist for many patients who are not aged. This invention provides means for overcoming the problems encountered.
While some improvements have been made in both equipment for patients who are able to walk and more or less take care of themselves, little or no emphasis has been made or devoted to improving bath equipment for bed-ridden patients, particularly the incontinent, in order to make such bath equipment more care efficient.
Incontinent patients, including those who have little or no use of their limbs, experience feelings of a sense of neglect, indignity, and humility because of their conditions of urinary and fecal incontinence. This condition exists in hospitals, nursing homes, and in private homes. The conditions are made worse by the reactions of employee attendants and relatives, perhaps unintentional, to the conditions which exist because of poorly designed bath equipment. The present invention provides means for overcoming these conditions.
Although there is a tremendous impact upon the lives of patients, attendants, and relatives by the cited conditions, attempts to deal with the problem of incontinence, primarily fecal incontinence, have been feeble and the focus has been misdirected. The result has been that the relationship between patients and their relatives is psychologically depressing, esthetically repulsive, and socially demoralizing.
The problem of total dependence of bed-ridden, or bed to wheelchair patients associated with incontinence, is a severe burden and almost impossible to deal with where a single attendant is involved. Patient neglect and abuse normally follow.
Federal and state regulations in most cases mandate that a minimum of two hours of care be provided to patients in skilled nursing facilities. In many cases the problem of incontinence makes such standards unattainable.
In the prior art, the cleaning of a soiled patient still requires the use of a basin of water drawn at a sink located within or outside of a a patient's room, or the use of sink into which the hands are put repeatedly during the process of cleaning the patient's body. Thus, the water or other solution being used is immediately soiled and so soiled and contaminated water is reused. The present invention provides a means for minimizing the handling of human waste by bringing the necessary supply of water to the patient.
The present invention overcomes these problems. The patient is relieved of the depressing, self-imposed isolation, and other indignities that incontinent patients feel. The attendants, professional or semi-professional, and relatives, providing nursing care have an improved means of providing the care. The portable bath facility enables even the non-skilled in the art of caring for the sick, particularly the incontinent, to provide proper care with a minimum of difficulty. The cleaning is further facilitated when performed in conjunction with the aforementioned patient transport and care vehicle.
The portable gravity bath can be carried easily, can be placed upon a stand or other means for use, and can be hung from supports or from a wall. The capacity can be varied with the size of the unit, although normally a one gallon size is sufficient.
Warm water is normally used as the liquid, however, it is to be understood that a solution containing a soap or a disinfectant or other substance is within the scope and intent of this invention.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a portable bath device that provides a flow of liquid by gravity.
It is another object of this invention to provide a portable bath device that may be carried to the point of use.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a portable bath device that may be set upon a stand-like facility for use.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a portable bath device that may be supported from hangers.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a portable bath device that eliminates the use of soiled liquid in cleaning a patient.
It is yet still another object of this invention to provide a portable bath device that facilitates the cleaning of incontinent patients in a manner that both skilled and unskilled attendants may use.
It is also another object of this invention to provide a portable bath device that facilitates the cleaning of patients who lack the use of their limbs.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a portable bath device which is needed to obviate the necessity for institutionalization of dependent and incontinent patients in nursing homes and hospitals due to incontinence because of a lack of appropriate equipment.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent in light of the following description of the preferred embodiments.